Colorado Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest Colorado Daily Snow

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 3 years ago October 21, 2020

Two big updates

Summary

First update: On Sunday and Monday, we will see cold weather and snow with totals ranging from 3-20 inches depending on the track of the storm. Temperatures will be very cold and snowmaking should ramp up. Second update: We just released a Group All-Access subscription which is our best deal and makes it easy to share All-Access with three people (so they stop bugging you for the forecast:-).

Short Term Forecast

Wednesday & Thursday

The weather will be dry and pretty warm. Unfortunately, west of the divide, wind speeds will become a little stronger and gustier which will fan the flames of ongoing fires. East of the divide, we'll also see gusty winds on Wednesday into Thursday morning, then winds will switch direction to blow from the east on Thursday.

Friday

A cold front on Thursday night into Friday morning will bring light snow to the foothills east of the divide. This won't be a big deal for most mountains. 

Saturday

This will be the final warm and dry day for a while. 

Saturday Night through Monday

The storm is coming and all the latest models now show that the track of this system will dive to the southwest.

There is a lot of confidence in the temperature forecast. For the northern and perhaps central mountains, Sunday should bring high temperatures in the 20s, and Monday's highs might stay in the teens.

These colder temperatures mean that snowmaking will ramp up and I wouldn't be surprised to see Arapahoe Basin or Loveland get ready to open a run by sometime next week (I have no insider info, this is just a guess).

There is low confidence in the snow forecast. When storms take a track that dives to the southwest, they often become cut off from the main west-to-east flow of weather. When storms become cut off, they wobble, meander, and the predictability of the snow forecast decreases dramatically until we get closer to the day of the storm.

Below are the past three snow forecasts from the European model. You can see how different each forecast is. I outlined areas of heavier snowfall to make it easy to take a quick glance at each image and notice the differences between them.

From Sunday into Monday, low-end snow totals should be around 5 inches, an average snow total could be around 10 inches, and some areas could see 20+ inches.

The track of the storm, and the location of the jet stream energy, will determine which mountains will get the most snow. The forecast storm track and position of the jet stream are different between models and are also different from one model run to the next. Nobody knows the outcome, and I will not write a lot about each possible permutation because the range of possibilities is very large and the forecast will continue to change for at least another day or two.

The take-away point is to get ready for a big change in the weather on Sunday and Monday and let's hope that ALL mountains see a lot of snow which would help to reduce the spread of existing wildfires and reduce the chances for new wildfires.

Extended Forecast

Week of October 26-30

Monday should be a very cold day with snow falling for a lot of the state.

The rest of the week will become gradually warmer and there might be a few lingering showers on Tuesday and Wednesday if the storm takes its time heading off to the east.

November

The main signal for the first few days of November is a return to warmer and drier weather. The longer-range models are starting to hint at a more active pattern for mid-November and late-November, but that's typical of the storm track moving south through the fall and into early winter. For now, I see NO definitive indication of a switch to consistently stormy weather at a certain time in November. I'll keep you posted.

All-Access Group Subscription!

There might not be friends on a powder day, but I know that leading up to powder days, you and your friends and family talk a lot about the upcoming forecast.

So we made it easier and less expensive to get your whole crew upgraded to All-Access so that they can each create a list of favorite mountains, get the latest Daily Snow emailed to them, see the 10-day forecast, and all the other All-Access features

The new All-Access Group Subscription is $39.99/year and includes you + three people. That's $39.99 per year for 4 people = about $10 per year per person. It's a screamin' deal.

When you sign up for All-Access Group, you can invite three of your friends or family by entering their email addresses. That's all you have to do. Oh, and maybe bug them to buy you a beer or a bite to pay you back.

You can purchase the All-Access Group subscription plan right now on our website. It'll come to our iPhone & Android apps soon.

Here is more about the Group subscription, new pricing for the Single subscription that starts on Nov 1st, and links to sign up: https://opsw.co/GroupSub

Like I mentioned earlier this month, we are working hard to earn your subscription this season with new features and unbeatable pricing. Thanks so much for your support!

And thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

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Geography Key

Northern Mountains
Steamboat, Granby, Beaver Creek, Vail, Ski Cooper, Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone, Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass, Eldora, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Along the Divide
Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass

East of the Divide
Eldora, Echo, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Central Mountains
Aspen, Sunlight, Monarch, Crested Butte, Irwin, Powderhorn

Southern Mountains
Telluride, Silverton – north side of the southern mountains | Purgatory, Wolf Creek – south side of the southern mountains

About Our Forecaster

Joel Gratz

Founding Meteorologist

Joel Gratz is the Founding Meteorologist of OpenSnow and has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 2003. Before moving to Colorado, he spent his childhood as a (not very fast) ski racer in eastern Pennsylvania.

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